It is almost impossible to imagine a scenario where David Moyes is offered a new contract by West Ham at the end of the season. Only a madman could conclude that another term of Moyesball is the right and sensible option for the club. The Board may see Moyes as ‘the devil they know’ but there is far too much antipathy from supporters for it to work – and they are unlikely to take two or more years of misery lightly. Would a business owner knowingly sign-up for that – an extended period of guaranteed toxicity?
Although the owners will have their major focus on revenues, they cannot be impervious to the cause of fan unrest – a style of football that will bore the pants off from anyone paying more than casual attention. With 60% of the club’s income originating from Broadcasting (including prize money) the past three seasons may well have served them handsomely. But with the recent slide down the table and the prospect of further European participation fading by the week, there will already be a hit to revenues – without risking a season ticket holders revolt.
By the time West Ham kick-off against Brentford on Monday night they will most likely be down to tenth in the table. Had it not been for the Carabao cup final distracting Chelsea, they would probably have slipped into the bottom half. And history doesn’t offer much hope that the long eight game winless run will come to an end against the Bees.
If anyone had been looking for a reaction to the Arsenal slaughter during last Saturday’s visit to Nottingham, they were sadly disappointed. With Lucas Paqueta still absent through injury and Forest doubling up on Mohammed Kudus the lack of creativity on show was painfully obvious. The return of Michail Antonio should have been a positive but served only to reinforce the obsession with route-one football. When presented with the Hammers only realistic goal opportunity of the afternoon he fluffed his lines as often happens when allowed too much time. West Ham may have enjoyed more possession than is usual in games, but were slow and predictable with their possession. The long misdirected cross-field representing the go-to tactic. The hosts had the lion’s share of goalscoring attempts and could easily have doubled their final tally.
Rather than taking the opportunity in his post-match comments to apologise for yet another abject and depressing performance, Moyes opted for tetchy distraction with tales of his winning genius. It convinced no-one and served only to widen the divide between manager and fans. Perhaps if you add in three seasons of Euro group games against teams from third tier continental leagues then his win percentage still looks healthy. But in the Premier League, it is now just 27 wins from the last 81 games. Hardly genius level.
The uncertainty over Moyes future has been a godsend for the clickbait websites who on a single day can carry stories that he is about to sign a new contract, that he has x games to save his job, and that West Ham have drawn up a shortlist of managerial replacements. A list that bizarrely has Steve Cooper’s name included on it – possibly as a diversity candidate.
None of us know what is actually going on, or how the various board members view the situation. The vacuum of uncertainty exists because I believe they intend to limp along until the end of the season under the current regime. Allowing Moyes contract to run down avoids accusations from the punditocracy that they have treated their pal harshly.
While most pundits continue to implore us to “be careful what we wish for” – is the collective noun a predictability of pundits – a few have started to break ranks and suggest that fans are right to want better. That anyone can believe the manager has what it takes to turn things around or lead the club forward is magical thinking. The tendency for casual observers is to confuse results with performances – but to the supporter they are very different. There have been very few notable performances this season even if impressive results against Brighton, Spurs, and Arsenal have been recorded. They were more a case of opponents not taking chances, riding your luck and benefiting from individual moments of brilliance from Paqueta, Kudus or Jarrod Bowen. A style of play based around the low block might turn up trumps once in a while, but it is not a recipe for long term sustainable success in any competition higher in quality than the Europa Conference.
And if results aren’t quite as brilliant as they have been presented, the negligence in running down the size and quality of the squad could be considered a sacking offence in its own right. And this despite large sums of money being invested in the transfer market. It has left us short on experience, with precious few options from the bench, and is the reason why so many end up playing out of position. Equally, the manager has no track record of improving or developing players – apart from trying to shoehorn them into his rigid system. It cannot be an attractive proposition for potential signings and it’s hard to imagine the existing playing staff being at all happy with it.
I fully expect the winless run to continue into next month when we play Burnley. Thomas Frank has had the measure of Moyes tactics from the very start and there’s nothing to suggest that Monday will be the time to take a first Premier League point from Brentford. The only hope is that Paqueta finally returns to deliver a stroke of inspiration – for without him the team is impotent. With Kalvin Phillips suspended there will be a recall for Tomas Soucek – providing another chance to see the 1970’s tactic of goal kicks lofted towards the touchline for Soucek to head on. It’s the beauty of Moyesball. With a guarantee that Ivan Toney will pick up at least one goal, the Hammers will need to break their three game duck if they are going to put an end to the Brentford whitewash. COYI!
Under The Hammers 
Great article as usual, Geoff – I think, unfortunately, the Conference win provided a smokescreen for Moyes as we were hopeless in Premier League last season. A few wins late in season kept us up, I think six points above drop zone ? Reading Claret & Hugh, spokesman from club says “we hope he turns it around” – turns what around exactly ? had two years of tripe now, and the bloke is clueless. When we let players leave in the window, I expected them to be replaced with better quality as I’m sure most fans did, in order to push up League, have a good run in Europa etc. But no, the smallest, slowest & oldest squad in the Prem’ just got worse ! Who this is down to individually is open to debate, but total incompetence by the club is not in doubt. Should just avoid relegation this season, then no Europe next season so good players will go. I’m not sure right man for the job, but pretty confident club will cock up next managerial appointment as is generally the norm. Oh well, as dear old Harry once said “It’s back to basics !”.
All the best, Ken.
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Hi Ken, I have interpreted the club’s position as not wanting to do anything until the summer regardless. Could be wrong but can’t believe that anyone thinks he can retrieve the situation. But the problems appear to go beyond the manager and the depletion of the squad in January should not have been allowed to happen. Of course, Fornals and Benny (and Kehrer) were probably desperate to leave because of the way they had been treated. Like you, my confidence is not high that a sensible choice of replacement would be made when Moyes finally leaves. The entire club hierarchy needs a shake-up and put into more professional hands. Meddling Chairmen are another relic of the past.
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moyes should leave now things are as bad as they can get he has no idea on how to change things for the better ranting off about how successful he’s been and that we have never had it better if getting trashed by top teams and losing to teams fighting relegation is better then I’m a monkeys uncle sure we are going to lose some games even Man City lose a few but to lose without even trying with no passion no fight no positives surely the owners must act now before it’s to late and our suffers totally collapse will result in our best players looking to move to other clubs and quality players won’t want to sign for us and who could blame them if moyes stays then our great club will be in a position that can only lead to relegation and it could be a fair amount of time before we can move back up the leagues it is really that bad we need moyes gone now or pay the price for not bringing in a manager that can turn things around
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Agree with all that Bennyboy. It’s not losing that fans object to but the way that it happens through tame surrender. I doubt anyone in the squad is inspired by Moyes and most of the spirit and all of the leadership on the pitch left with Declan Rice. They just look to be going through the motions in most games as it’s an end of season kickabout. Once we are eliminated from the Europa League the season will only get worse. I think they should bin Moyes now but reckon he is here until the end of his contract
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Great piece Geoff. Much depends on Paqueta’s return. Without him opponents can put 2 players on Kudus and let Soucek and Johnson enjoy a training session, with Bowen isolated. On the plus side I”m reading that Steidten’s brother Moritz (who once played for North Carolina State Wolfpack) has joined as some kind of scout. Hoping they’ll go after Tuchel.
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Tuchel is certainly one of the more interesting names that has been put forward. Should be able to work much closer with the Steidten family than Moyes has. He’d likely welcome a return to the Premier League. Regarding Paqueta, the latest I read was that he would not be back until the Burnley game. That would support my theory that this we be the earliest we will pick up a win
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Hi Jeff, as usual t
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Good piece as always Geoff. I’m struggling to at something about Moyse without it becoming personal. After all, I don’t know the man , all I can go on ( like most fans) are his increasingly detached public utterances.I think it was you that pointed out that he has been at the club four years a now, and only Cresswell and Johnson of the current squad were here when he arrived. So what we have, he has created. And yet he often talks about the team as though it were a work in progress, and one he is trying to sort out. He is critical of both individual and team performances, as though both coaching and playing style were nothing to do with him. As for harking back to past glories, if I have to listen once more to how he won us a European trophy I won’t be responsible for my actions! His approach to the game is twenty years out of date. Good players are shoehorned into a rubbish system and often made ores in the process. Aguerd might be a good example. I may be alone in this, but I was delighted when he joined and I believe there is a decent player in there somewhere. Aguerd must be shocked to find he spends at least three quarters of every game desperately defending our penalty area, blocking shots and hoofing the ball away to anyone just to stay in the game. The same may well apply to Mavropanos. Players don’t, or shouldn’t, become suddenly bad because they have joined West Ham, but it’s amazing the number that have and do. Benrahma, Cornet even Phillips anyone.
All of this can be traced back to Moyse, a man incapable of contrition and even less capable it seems of working with experienced and talented colleagues. Newman, Steidten, Noble anyone?
Like you Geoff, I think he will remain in post until his contract expires, by which time we will be out of Europe and in the bottom half of the Premiership. Not such an attractive proposition for Tuchel or anyone like him. COYI
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Excellent points, Mike. It must be difficult facing the press when you are on an awful run of results and a large section of the supporters are against you. But the things Moyes comes out with only make matters worse. As you say, if you listen to what he says you’d get the impression that nothing that happened on the pitch has anything to do with him. He has no responsibility for all those weird team selections, preferring to play his favourites out of position than giving squad players an outing, poor substitutions, being clueless at in-game changes and relying on old and slow players.
Moyes tactics and the way the club is run are all museum pieces. Major change is urgently needed to put the club on a professional footing.
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